Ryan Blaney, Ford debut new colors for Michigan NASCAR weekend

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Fresh off his first career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series win and the 99th for Wood Brothers Racing, Ryan Blaney debuted a new partnership and paint scheme for Sunday’s race at Michigan with Omnicraft.

The all-new brand launched by Ford in January allows for drivers who own a non-Ford vehicle the ability to purchase replacement parts as well as have their vehicles serviced at Ford dealerships.

"It’s great to always bring something a little bit new to the race team and even though Omnicraft is part of Ford and Motorcraft, it’s just something completely different," Blaney said. "It was before where Motorcraft would be strictly Ford parts. Now, Omnicraft covers everything that you can get for any make or any vehicle, so that’s great. That’s just kind of widening their expansion and kind of covering all sides of it."

With the partnership, the accustomed red, white and blue No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane paint scheme will now be replaced with orange and white for Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400.

Brett Wheatley, executive director of Ford Customer Service Division, said the decision to debut the sponsorship this week at Michigan was influenced by the proximity of the Ford headquarters.

"It’s our backyard," Wheatley said. "We’re going to have a lot of executives here. We’re going to be hosting about 1,100 employees on Sunday, so everybody wants to meet the teams, meet the drivers. So it’s something very, very special to be in our backyard and have this win coming in here. It’s just perfect timing."

While Omnicraft looks to promote their newly developed brand, the partnership with Blaney is promising as the 23-year-old, Hartford, Ohio native has brought a wealth of profit for Ford in their collaboration.

"We’re just really, really proud of the longtime relationship that we’ve have and it’s been phenomenal for our brand," Wheatley said. "And what Ryan and the team have been able to do for us from a business standpoint this year -- we look at the media value of what it’s done for our brand and it’s upwards of 50 million dollars right now."

The green flag for the FireKeepers Casino 400 is set for 3 p.m. Eastern.